Special Guests will include, but are not limited to: Rev. Dr. Barron
Banks, civil rights activist and professor; Douglas Lacey,
actor and musician; Vicki Robinson-Slater, attorney,
activist and 2016 Mississippi Gubernatorial candidate; Dr. Edilia J.
Carthan, author, professor and businesswoman; Pastor Thomas Clark
of Ascension Lutheran Church in Jackson, MS; Rip Daniels, host of
“It’s a New Day” and owner of WJZD 94.5FM The People’s Station, Dr.
Hightower the first VP of the NAACP, Joseph Campbell of the
MLRC, Rev. Thomas Jenkins of New Dimensions Church

JACKSON, Miss.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The
Flag for All Mississippians Coalition will host a public rally at
the Mississippi State Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016 from 11am – 1pm
to call for the legislature to remove the Confederate emblem from the
Mississippi state flag. Several special guests have been invited to
speak and include cultural and religious leaders from across Mississippi
representing the diversity of the coalition in support of changing the
flag. The Coalition is chartering buses from different regions of the
state to the capitol to enable citizens from across Mississippi to
attend.

Director of the Flag for All Mississippians Coalition Sharon Brown
says, “It’s time for Mississippi to embrace a new flag that represents
unity and progress. We can’t achieve our social and economic potential
as a state when we have a banner that includes a symbol associated with
a civil war that was fought to keep our ancestors in slavery and the
legacy of white supremacy and racism. The honorable and sensible things
for Mississippi legislators to do is remove this emblem so that our
great state can move forward and embrace our state motto, “The
Hospitality State.”

WHAT:

Rally, One Flag for All Rally

WHEN:

Thursday, February 18th 11am – 1pm

WHERE:

Mississippi State Capitol – 400 High St, Jackson, MS 39201

WHY:

Demanding legislators change Mississippi state flag so that it
shall not contain or include any reference to the Confederate
army’s battle flag or to the Confederacy.

Rally participants will have the opportunity to sign ballot
initiative 55, the Flag for All Mississippians Act, which is
sponsored by the Flag for All Mississippians Coalition. The coalition is
alternatively supporting the adoption of SB2147
and HB1544, which would change the flag by a commission of the people,
stating that the new flag would be unveiled at the 200th anniversary of
MS statehood, which is 12/10/2017.

The Flag for All Mississippians Coalition is a diverse group of citizens
who have come together to support the creation of a state flag that
represents all Mississippians regardless of their race, religion,
education, or socio-economic status. We believe it is time for
Mississippi to end its era as the only state that has a tribute to the
Confederacy as part of their state flag, for Mississippi to embrace
unity, not division and to remove a symbol that has kept our state from
exploring its true economic potential. It is time for Mississippi to do
what is right and create a flag for all Mississippians.